Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories are turning me to the dark side. They are the ones that do DIY Cylon Eyes.

The Well Trained Mind. I'm not about to get into it (I have enough on my brain already), but the conversation was fascinating so I'm putting it here so I don't lose the reference.

Regina Holliday and her mural re-the American health care problem and her husband's death. It's a good looking piece of work, I'm hoping she (or someone) will produce a print of the actual mural.

Alexander Calder, kinetic sculpture. Wire sculptures. ArtGuy suggested I look at his stuff. Like this wire stuff especially.

My latest enthusiasm comes courtesy of elmsley_rose.

Things you can do with hyperbolic crochet.

I, a complete failure at the maths/science stream, appear to now have a grasp of what non-Euclidean geometry means. Which means I kind of have a grasp on Euclidean geometry too. All thanks to people turning it into something I might just enjoy creating and looking at for the sheer hell of it.

I've got the catalogue, but it's all in black and white, meh. However, there's plenty of stuff online. And I have plans, people! Plans!

First step: hair scrunchie for sjkasabi...

I have no freaking idea.

I got up. I got myself together. Assessed how I felt and figured it wouldn't be a total disaster. I dithered briefly, wondered which bits were worrying me the most and worked out what I'd do about them. I made a phone call, called a taxi, went to the mobility centre and climbed into a scooter. I went to the Art Gallery, which is right nearby. I saw the Sydney Nolan retrospective. His later work impressed me far more than it ever has before. I found his Kelly series traumatic to look at, quite distressing in a way that they never were before. I pondered this for a bit, and then I moved on.


His antarctic paintings are breathtaking, and I'd never really looked at the stuff he did with - was it acetate? Where he rubs the paint off. And the Riverbend paintings were astonishing. I had never seen them before. His spray paintings were fucking brilliant, I'd never realised that before either. Maybe I was just still too caught up in painterly brushstrokes back then. Or something.

And what hit me at the end was that he was not afraid. He really was not afraid. Took his work as far as he could, pushed his skills and vision hard. He didn't stop and he didn't hold back. With an end result of work of amazing delicacy and beauty and power.

~~~~

I bought too many books, I returned the scooter, I decided I could walk to the tramstop and catch a tram home because it wasn't yet peak hour. I <3 the mobility centre.

The tram ride was okay becauase although I was exhausted, my sensory overload problem seemed to be fairly okay today. Normally, the problem is that the more exhausted you get, the worse the sensory overload gets, which is one of a few reasons why I don't do trams. Or for that matter, anything much at all.

I am now feeling a bit stunned.

And it is catching up now.

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But before I fuck up completely, here's what I bought.

Pearce, BarrySidney Nolan, from the Art Gallery of NSW. The catalogue, of course. Hardcover and extensive.

Culture Warriors, National Indigenous Art Triennial '07 National Gallery of Australia. Which I never would have had a chance at seeing, but wish I had.

Morphy, Howard, Becoming Art: Exploring Cross Cultural Categories UNSW Press, 2008. Looked interesting, something I mull over in my own very vague and limited way, so why not have a book to do it with, I figure. It might help me resolve some of my own puzzles about the stuff I got taught as Art History and how it fits with all the other stuff I've read and learnt about and where it all goes next. My own personal attempt to find common ground with different fields I've studied and...okay I'll stop now. (Unlike Sir Sidney, I am afraid, which is why I'll never be great).

Dew, Christine, Uncommissioned Art. An A-Z of Australian Graffiti Meigunyah Press, 2008.
How could I not?


Plus random greeting cars and postcards, some for me, some for the greeting card stash.

They very kindly didn't charge me for the bag. :-)

In retrospect, if I'd joined the National Gallery society, the membership wouldn't have cost much at all because it would have included entry to the exhibition and given me a discount on the books, but would only pay for itself if I go back again once or twice over the next year. At this point, part of me is saying yes, yes, yes - fuck I'll be back on Monday - but I wasn't entirely sure I was being realistic, so I didn't.

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Braiins...? Huh............

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If today doesn't kill me, I will try for the Medeival Manuscripts exhibition next. I believe it's on for about another month...hopefully I'll have recovered by then.